Ordo Templi Orientis Phenomenon

Heinrich Traenker — Bookseller in Germany

P.R. Koenig

In Germany, at the turn of the century during the founding chaos of
Theosophy, Heinrich Traenker played a major role as publisher. He did
not establish contact with Theodor Reuss until 1919 although he had
been told about Reuss many years earlier by Franz Hartmann (another key
figure in the development of Theosophy and once friend of Carl Kellner). Although they never met in flesh, Traenker became the X° for Germany through Reuss (10 May 1921 - C.S. Jones was also made a X° on the same day). Reuss also wrote two other charters for Germans in 1921: to Arnoldo Krumm-Heller
who eventually erected his Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua, the
A.·. A.·. and the Gnostic Catholic Church in South America (while still having his "Sumo Supremo
Santuario" in Berlin-Heiligensee), and to Henri
Birven who soon would be influential in the development of the
Thelemic movement in Germany.

Around 1920 Traenker created the "Pansophia", mainly a publishing
project that was financially supported by Karl Germer who became
co-owner in 1922. Another member of "Pansophia" was Eugen Grosche, who
would go on to found the Fraternitas
Saturni. Traenker never thought highly of Reuss and only after
Reuss' death did he consider the O.T.O. a suitable addition to his
collection of Orders. After Reuss' death he visited Reuss' widow in a
vain attempt to buy the remains of his papers etc. The papers were
eventually purchased by Hans Rudolf
Hilfiker. Traenker gained insights into Reuss' files and discovered
that there was no appointed successor to the office of OHO. He
corresponded intensely with the American X° Charles S. Jones (all of
his books have been translated and published in Germany by Traenker)
and invited Crowley in 1925 in order to elect him a "World Saviour".
Crowley upset Traenker so much that he called the police and withdrew
his vote from the election. So from 1928 on, Traenker started to call
himself OHO of the O.T.O., of the AASR, the Swedenborg Rite, the Golden
Dawn, MM, the Rite of Heredom, the HBL, the Fraternitas Rosa Crucis,
the Gnostic Church, and the Illuminates.

In 1930 he collaborated with A.M.O.R.C.
which came to nothing whereupon he founded the "Societas Pansophia Universalis" in New York in 1932.

The sigil is remeniscent of Reuss's SOTOM. [28]

Meanwhile Jones aroused the anger of Crowley through propagating the
"Aeon of Truth and Justice" which led to the delicate expulsion of the
Reuss-X° of the US (Jones) through the Reuss-X° of England and
self-styled OHO (Crowley). As to the question of O.T.O. sovereignty,
Crowley's friend Gerald Yorke, had a clear opinion as an expert, when
he wrote in 1948 to Karl Germer, Crowley's heir: "Jones and
Traenker's X°'s go back to Reuss and not to A.C. They therefore in the
Constitution
of the O.T.O. are the ones who establish the next O.H.O., and even if
you are X° from Crowley, they can outvote you in a council to choose
the new O.H.O. They could then appoint their own Treasurer General, and
he could I think, lay legal claim to the effects and the
copyright." [read the integral letter]
Jones died on 24 February 1950. But Traenker was still alive.

At the end of July 1950 the Swiss H.J. Metzger
payed a visit
to Traenker, who, because he saw himself as the successor to Theodor
Reuss, was seen by Metzger as his "greatest adversary". Metzger
did not dare acknowledge his own relationship with Traenker's enemy
Eugen Grosche of the Fraternitas Saturni, because both Metzger and
Grosche feared a court case, which could result in Traenker excluding
them from the exchange of the secret papers, especially concerning the
Supremum Sanctuarium of the O.T.O. In order to protect his own O.T.O.
Metzger discussed with Grosche the the possibility of putting the
O.T.O. under the protection of the FS in Germany where it would be
incorporated as 18° in the then 33°-degrees scale of the FS. "Then
the Lodge [FS] stands before [the O.T.O.], and he
[Traenker] can not go against it. As part of an Association, it
enjoys rightful protection." "The Johannism[asonry] [Craft]
would head the first three degrees of the FS, then follows the
Pronaos[degrees] of the FS, and in the Pentalphae degree
[18°] members were admitted to the working of the O.T.O., since it
is assumed that the O.T.O. includes the Johannism[asonry]. -

Alas, Metzger and Grosche would soon quarrell endlessly. Heinrich
Traenker died only a few years later in 1956. The "Pansophic Rites"
lived on in Eduard Munninger (1901-1965) who also considered himself a heir to Arnoldo
Krumm-Heller's FRA in Austria.